Southport yoga teacher: I haven't used a knife since the attack
The 36-year-old primary school teacher was leading a group of young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance class in Southport on July 29 last year when horror descended. A hooded teenager, Axel Rudakubana, now 18, burst in and fatally stabbed Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and tried to kill ten others — including Lucas.
It later emerged that Rudakubana had circumvented age verification checks to buy a kitchen knife on Amazon. Lucas suffered serious injuries as she tried to protect the girls. In January, the killer admitted his
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Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Why a female teacher, 38, finally came clean about having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student
A female teacher has admitted to a secret sexual relationship with a young student as she felt 'unloved' by her husband at home. Laura Ann Hill, 38, a mother-of-two, faces ten years' prison after she was charged with sexual assault against the Alkira Secondary College student in Cranbourne, Melbourne. The maths and 'wellbeing' teacher from the public school, felt 'exhausted' at her family home, the Herald Sun reported. To compensate she went for long drives with her student and engaged in late night hook-ups in public parks for two months, believing she and the 15-year-old were in love. She said they would frequently kiss and talk about their emotions. Hill even visited the student's home to smoke marijuana in the garage before sneaking into her bedroom. Hill recounted how she hid in the girl's closet when her grandmother arrived home. The 38-year-old fronted County Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to a single count of child sexual assault, and five further counts of sexual penetration of a minor. Her lawyer, Anna Dixon, said the 38-year-old was remorseful for her actions and wrote a letter of apology to the teen's mother. Hill's partner had uncovered the offending and directed her to inform the school or he would himself. She contacted her assistant principal and a day later the student filed a police report. Two weeks later, police charged Hill with the offences to which she has pleaded guilty and released her on bail. Despite police prohibitions, Hill continued to contact her victim and secretly met up with her in a playground to engage in sexual acts at midnight. Ms Dixon said Hill's partner later walked out on her with their two children, aged eight and four, and left Hill's 'life in ruins'. She had complex reasons for offending, the lawyer said, including a borderline personality disorder, fantasies of love, and poor understanding of personal boundaries. 'She was feeling unseen, unloved and exhausted – and the very need for powerful intimacy was not being met,' Ms Dixon argued. She said Hill had no history of attraction to other females or children, but the 15-year-old's attention made her feel wanted. Hill also stayed the night with the 15-year-old at her grandfather's home before she was arrested for a second time late last year and kept on remand. The mother-of-two was hired at the school in 2023 to teach math where she also joined the wellbeing staff, hired to help students with behavioural and learning difficulties. She claimed she tried to cut-off the relationship five times before engaging in sexual conduct with the teen. She told the 15-year-old it was not a good idea to kiss, before kissing her anyway. Judge Claire Quin will detail Hill's sentence on August 15. She could be looking at up to ten years behind bars. The 38-year-old has been banned from having personal visits or copies of pictures of her children in her cell due to the nature of her offending.
The Independent
2 hours ago
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Lawyer condemns $1.3 million compensation for Australian woman wrongfully imprisoned for 20 years
An Australian state government's decision to pay 2 million Australian dollars ($1.3 million) compensation to a woman who spent 20 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing her four children was condemned by her lawyer Thursday as 'profoundly unjust.' New South Wales Attorney-General Michael Daley said Thursday that Kathleen Folbigg's lawyers had been told the sum the 58-year-old would be paid more than two years after she was released from prison. Daley did not make the figure public, but Folbigg's supporters confirmed the sum. 'The decision follows thorough and extensive consideration of the materials and issues raised in Ms. Folbigg's application (for compensation) and provided by her legal representatives,' Daley said in a statement. The government declined further comment. Folbigg's lawyer, Rhanee Rego, described the sum as a 'profoundly unjust figure' and 'hugely insulting.' 'Her (Folbigg's) reaction is really that it feels, well — we all feel that it's profoundly unjust,' Rego told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. 'When you look at the other comparison cases and take into account what she has endured: she lost her four children; she has spent two decades in jail; vilified as Australia's worst female serial killer,' Rego added. While Folbigg has no legal avenue to appeal Daley's decision, Rego said she supported a lawmaker's call for an inquiry into how Daley reached the figure. Rego didn't put a figure on appropriate compensation, but said it should be 'substantially higher.' 'I was very much hopeful that it would be substantially more because this is one of our worst wrongful conviction cases in Australia,' Rego said. In December 2023, the New South Wales Court of Appeal overturned all convictions against Folbigg, 20 years after a jury found her guilty of killing her four children. Folbigg had already been pardoned at the state government's direction months earlier and released from prison based on new scientific evidence that her four children may have died from natural causes as she had always insisted. The pardon was seen as the quickest way of getting Folbigg out of prison after an inquiry into the new evidence recommended the appeals court consider quashing her convictions. The inquiry that recommended Folbigg's pardon and acquittal was prompted by a petition signed in 2021 by 90 scientists, medical practitioners and related professionals who argued that significant new evidence showed the children likely died of natural causes. Her first child, Caleb, was born in 1989 and died 19 days later in what a jury determined to be the lesser crime of manslaughter. Her second child, Patrick, was 8 months old when he died in 1991. Two years later, Sarah died at 10 months. In 1999, Folbigg's fourth child, Laura, died at 19 months. Prosecutors argued Folbigg smothered them. She was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 30 years in prison on three counts of murder and one of manslaughter. Folbigg's friend since childhood, Tracy Chapman, described the compensation sum as 'disgraceful.' She said Folbigg was unemployed and living alone with her dog Snowy in rental accommodation in the city of Newcastle. Chapman said Folbigg was 'pretty much rocking in a corner' in reaction to the news and unable to speak to the media. 'Kath's on ongoing mental health support that she needs for the rest of her days,' Chapman said. 'She's got to deal with the trauma of the loss of the four kids that was never done properly during 20 years wrongfully convicted in prison, the legal process and all the trauma that was attached to it as well as then living day to day in a world that has changed so much,' Chapman added. Chapman said Folbigg had told her she was 'deeply sad and there is no empathy here.' 'When I spoke to her she just said: 'Trace, the sad thing here is I'm not surprised,'' Chapman said, using an abbreviated form of Tracy.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
British man charged with attempting to drown daughter-in-law during US holiday
A British man has been charged by US police with the attempted murder of his daughter-in-law after allegedly trying to drown her in a swimming pool while on holiday, local authorities said. Mark Raymond Gibbon, 62, of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, allegedly tried to drown the 33-year-old woman after they argued about his grandchildren in their rental home at the Solterra Resort in Davenport, Florida, on Sunday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said on X. Officers had responded to reports of a disturbance in a back-yard swimming pool at around 5.20pm local time. Gibbon allegedly pushed and held the victim's head under water multiple times which prevented her from breathing, Mr Judd said. He allegedly only stopped after holidaymakers next door said they had called the sheriff's office, while the victim's nine-year-old daughter jumped into the pool to try to stop the incident, the sheriff said. Gibbon was arrested and taken to Polk County Jail before he was charged with attempted second-degree murder and battery, Mr Judd said. The sheriff said in a statement: 'It's great that Polk County draws visitors from all across the world, but we expect vacationers to behave while they visit with us, just as we expect our lifelong residents to do the same. 'Because Mr Gibbon couldn't control his anger, he may find himself spending a lot more time in Florida than he had anticipated.'
